Coronavirus update: We’re keeping the UK connected. We are open for business. Despite best efforts some services may be disrupted.

Support and advice during uncertain times

Many businesses and people are now working from home, and are looking to move online. We can help make the delivery and sending of parcels easier in these difficult circumstances.

Here’s our guide to posting with Royal Mail from the safety of your home.

Support and advice during uncertain times

Many businesses and people are now working from home, and are looking to move online. We can help make the delivery and sending of parcels easier in these difficult circumstances.

Here’s our guide to posting with Royal Mail from the safety of your home.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy has announced that “the Government has always been clear that online retail can continue to operate and is encouraged, and that postal and delivery services will continue to operate. The retail sector is a vital lifeline for those self-isolating, and for all of us in adhering to the Government’s social distancing guidelines. The goods you supply make a real difference to our ability to get through this national crisis together, from the food and medicines that people need, to items ordered online to support home working, education or entertainment. Other goods, like electronics and technology, ensure people can remain connected virtually to friends and family, and hardware suppliers are ensuring people have the parts they need to carry out home repairs.”

We will continue providing the best delivery service for you and protect the health of our people, and our customers. We have provided guidance to our people to help prevent the spread of any infection. We are doing so in line with preventative guidance from Public Health Authority. We have also made a series of adjustments to our parcel handling procedures. We are keeping our ways of working under continuous review.

Hints & Tips

We’ve partnered with eBay and Post Office to share some tips for small businesses and marketplace sellers looking to expand their online retail presence.

These 10 tips come from responding to customer’s most asked questions, and from experience of helping make things easier for customers when they’re up and running and find themselves struggling to meet demand.

Register on an online marketplace to sell your goods – eBay recently waived fees to list and sell for all new businesses registering on its platform until 31 May 2020. Getting set up on eBay is simple; you can register through eBay.co.uk or through the mobile app. Register as a business account and the new seller offer is automatically applied. Then, you’re ready to start listing your items.

Check whether there any restrictions which may mean that items you want to sell can’t be sent by post, e.g. because they contain prohibited goods or are too large

Choose how you are going to ship the items to your customers. You can buy postage at your local Post Office, online via the Royal Mail App or website and on the eBay website.

Calculate the postage price based on the weight and size of your items – you can do this on the Post Office website, and via the Royal Mail App – and decide whether you include this in the price you charge to customers.

Decide whether you’re going to allow your buyer to return items and be sure to check out eBay’s returns policy before you start selling.

Package your items safely and securely, before you take them to the Post Office to help you minimise your time in-branch and protect the safety of yourself and branch staff.

Please ensure you post items within the timeframe stated in your listings.

Drop off your shipments at a branch that is convenient for you. Check on the Post Office website or RM App for opening hours.

Consolidate your visits into a Post Office to make as few trips as possible, consider incorporating your trip into your exercise time, as per social distancing guidelines.

If frequently posting lots of items, customers should consider using Post Office’s free Drop and Go service. Customers can drop off their items, the Post Office will do the weighing and printing of postage, and the customer minimises their time in the branch.

Selling on eBay?

New UK business sellers registering on eBay.co.uk from 26 March 2020 will not have to pay any fees to list or sell for the next two months. All businesses need to do to take advantage of this support is to open a new business account on www.eBay.co.uk, start listing and start selling. No further action is needed, and this will automatically apply to the first 250 listings per calendar month until 31 May 2020. Advice on how to do this is available here and details on eligible businesses are available here.

In addition, existing eBay registered business sellers who are experiencing severe cash flow problems as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak can apply to have their fees deferred for the next 30 days and eBay have said they will consider further extending this at the end of April.

Case studies

Direct Plants

Direct Plants is a family business which shut its physical stores due to cash pressure and established itself online ten years ago, during the recession.

Royal Mail was the first delivery service Direct Plants used when they moved their business onto eBay. They have a lot of larger deliveries, but still use Royal Mail daily for smaller packages.

Shaun, pictured, enjoys our nightly collections service, noting that it is a very cost-effective solution for businesses.

Shaun’s tip to other SME’s for operating during the crisis is to combine trips to the Post Office to limit contact.

Direct Plants are currently seeing unprecedented sales growth – up 200% on sales from the same period last year.

Into Music

Jake runs refurbished drum and music equipment business, Into Music. He recently opened a physical store, moving the business from his grandparents shed, where he sells products and teaches music lessons.

Jake uses Royal Mail Click & Drop, which pulls eBay orders onto a platform automatically. He credits the system for being nice and easy to use.

Having to close his store due to Coronaviurs, Jake has been moving more inventory online – particularly smaller parts and accessories.

Jake still packages and sends off orders himself. Before lockdown he would go down to his local Post Office everyday. He now goes during his daily exercise and has extended to a 2-day despatch time, so he can combine orders and not have to go every day.

Heavenly Homes & Gardens

Jade started selling refurbished items on eBay to earn money to pay off her student loan. When her store became successful, she quit her job as a lawyer to run the business full-time.

Last September, the success of her eBay store enabled her to open a bricks and mortar business in Ross-on-Wye. Due to Coronavirus she has had to close the store but continues to see demand via her online channels (eBay and her own website).

Jade has a Royal Mail Business Account and has daily collections from her shop.

Due to social distancing, Jade moves the parcels outside for collection and communicates with the delivery driver through the windows, putting the documents through the post box. Jade told us how this was a lovely part of her day, as he’s always so friendly and takes the time to chat through the window.

“Within days of the lockdown we were getting orders in from all over the U.K and almost all have been through eBay. As I have had a mix of orders through eBay and Shopify it worked really well (as always!) using the click & drop dashboard as I can see my orders from each different selling platform.”